Portrait of a Woman, Said to Be Caritas Pirckheimer (1467–1532)

The Portrait of a Woman, Said to Be Caritas Pirckheimer (1467–1532) by Albrecht Dürer is an oil on linen painting held within the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The subject, Caritas Pirckheimer, was a renowned German nun, intellectual, and humanist scholar closely associated with the Northern Renaissance circles in Nuremberg, including her brother, Willibald Pirckheimer, a close friend and patron of Dürer. This painting captures the intellectual dignity and serious demeanor characteristic of the time, forming part of a broader tradition of influential Renaissance women depicted in formal portraits.

While the composition and style reflect the precise draftsmanship and nuanced psychological depth typical of Dürer’s early 16th-century work, this specific canvas, executed in oil on linen, dates from the 20th century (1900-1999). The piece functions as a faithful copy of a lost original or an interpretation derived from existing early modern reproductions. Dürer himself was a master of various media, producing many of the most famous prints and woodcuts of the German Renaissance, which ensured his compositions were widely circulated and available for subsequent artists to study and replicate centuries later.

The enduring scholarly interest in figures like Caritas Pirckheimer demonstrates the lasting cultural impact of the Renaissance humanists whose lives were preserved through portraits by masters like Dürer. This work is a valuable representation of later academic engagement with one of the era’s most revered artistic legacies, ensuring that Dürer's style and subjects remain accessible to the public domain of artistic study.